On May 19, 2020, the GEO bargaining team met with the University bargaining team for Impact Bargaining, to hear a response to GEO’s latest counter proposals. This meeting had the largest turn out of GEO members since Impact Bargaining began, with over 200 people at the meeting! This post includes materials from the session: (1) management’s proposals, and (2) our ultimatum package.
The University bargaining team reluctantly went through their counter proposals, claiming that the GEO counter proposals were largely unchanged, aside from the addition of more detailed asks for international students. They also noted that they did not understand why additional asks for international students had been added, and did not seem to be aware of the precarious positions that many international students are currently in.
In their counter proposal, the University bargaining team remained largely unchanged in their positions. Two minor changes were made from their previous proposals: first, while unwilling to increase the amount of funding in a hardship fund or for jobs for graduate students, they combined the two funds previously proposed into a single $425,000 fund. The second change was simply that the vacation payout proposal was now moot, as the semester has ended.
After this, a number of GEO rank and file members expressed their extreme disappointment with the administration’s response. A number of questions were asked of the University bargaining team, but there were no satisfactory answers.
Both teams then went into caucus. In our caucus, we discussed the next step: setting an “ultimatum proposal” that their side cannot ignore. The ultimatum proposal pares down the GEO demands, while still standing by the most urgent. It is valid only for 24 hours, and represents the kind of package that would meet enough of our basic needs that we can actually reach a settlement.
Five minutes before the main meeting was scheduled to end, the University bargaining team messaged the GEO team to say that they were heading out early. The GEO team had planned to present the ultimatum proposal to the University team, and expressed that the meeting needed to be finished. However, the University team refused, leaving over 150 frustrated GEO members in the bargaining session room alone. After the meeting, the GEO bargaining team sent our ultimatum proposal to the University team via email. It expires today at 5pm.
Pandemic Housing Security: Keep all North Village and Lincoln units open through Dec 2020, waive rent for those without 20 hour graduate assistantship for a given semester
International Graduate Employees: Create a $50,000 one time visa reimbursement fund (up to $400 per student); banked funding for GEO eligible positions; 20 hour assistantships for international students who are stranded in US and do not have fundingGraduate Employee Pandemic Assistantship Fund: $2.5 million pandemic assistantship fund for GEO eligible students who can demonstrate financial hardship due to pandemic-related reasons
Pandemic-related Job Security: GEO eligible appointments extended in the academic year 2020-2021 should be maintained at at least 90% of the number from last year; no arguing for cuts based on switch to online format
GEO Orientation online (small but important): Mandatory GEO orientation (already in the contract) via Zoom
